“What’d you get for Christmas?” It’s a common question that we’ll hear beginning on December 26. It’s especially fun to ask kids because they love to respond excitedly. “I got a Lego set! I got a new phone! I got a fire truck! I got some new books!” And we smile and nod, remembering what that feels like.

Imagine a child who said, “I got a ganorpalorp.”

“What’s a ‘ganorpalorp,” you ask. 

“I don’t know,” the child responds, “but that’s what I got.”

Did you ever get a gift that you didn’t know what it was or what to do with it? I think that’s how many of us approach the idea of spiritual gifts.

When the Church talks about gifts, it’s usually been in terms of spiritual gifts. Paul writes about these gifts in his letters to the Corinthians and Romans. Many congregations will offer Bible studies, surveys, questionnaires, and inventories to help members determine their spiritual gifts. It seems like a good idea, but it has two fatal flaws: we don’t exactly know how spiritual gifts were used in Paul’s time and we don’t exactly know how to use spiritual gifts in our time. They’re kinda like getting a “garnorpalorp.”

Back to the child. “Did you get anything else for Christmas?”

“Oh yes! I got a board game and a doll and a coloring book.”

These we know. We know what to do with a board game: open it, read the rules, and play. We know what to do with a doll: dress it, change it, feed it, put it down for a nap. We know what to do with a coloring book: find bright fun colors and stay within the lines. These gifts are familiar. They aren’t as exotic as a “ganorpalorp” but we know what to do with them.

We all have other gifts, normal, run-on-the-mill, everyday gifts that we overlook when it comes to our church. Some people have the “gift of gab,” they’ve never met a stranger, only friends they haven’t met yet. Others have a gift for fixing things, whether a broken door or a computer that’s on the fritz. Some have a gift for problems, breaking them down into essential ideas and tasks and laying out a plan to tackle them. These gifts aren’t always as exciting as spiritual gifts, but they are gifts of God nonetheless and everyone has them.

Starting on January 19, we’ll be starting a sermon series and Bible study that helps us identify these everyday gifts and use them to build God’s kingdom. Lutheran Hour Ministries has created a program called, “Gifted for More” and it’s a five-week program that helps us take inventory of our earthly gifts and preferences, catalogs them for our church to use, and instructs individual members how to best use those gifts.      

      To get started, go to everygift.org and click the button near the top of the page “Take the EveryGift Inventory” and follow along. It can take 5-10 minutes to fill it out. Take your time and think about the questions. At the end it will ask some more information but the most important information is the “congregation code”: mtcindianola . This is important because, at the end of this series, Mt. Calvary will request a report of all the gifts we have in our church. (I’ll tell you more about what that’s important next month.)

This will help us to identify gifts we know: critical thinking, seeing opportunities, talking with people. These are gifts we know how to use and everyone has them.

In Christ,

Pastor Tom